Yanukovych: Each region of Ukraine should hold referendum

Yanukovych: Each region of Ukraine should hold referendum

“As the president whose thoughts and heart are together with you, I call on each reasonable citizen of Ukraine - don’t let the impostors use you! Demand a referendum on the determination of the status of each region within Ukraine,” the Russian news agency quoted him as saying.

He added “everything that has happened in recent months and is happening in Ukraine is an armed coup that was conducted by the opposition with the use of arms of terrorist groups with full support of some Western states.”

“The anarchy going on in the streets of our country has nothing in common with democracy. Let at least any Western state call democratic the steps taken by the current ‘managers.’ I don’t think that anyone from European high-ranking officials would publicly recognize normal the shooting and plunder in the streets of their states when terrorists are called activists who are allowed to rob and kill people with impunity,” Yanukovych noted.

“It’s absolutely logical that the protest that is rising in the South-East of Ukraine is a natural reaction of the densely populated industrial region to an armed coup,” he stated.

"Only an all-Ukrainian referendum and not early presidential elections can stabilize the situation and preserve Ukraine’s integrity," Yanukovych said, adding that anti-constitutional amendments made to the legislation, in particular, on presidential elections in Ukraine, “rule out the chance for fair elections, whenever they are held."